The Psychology behind watching a movie

[MrPositive]

Found this online article and book off google. Shrug. I guess they might lead you to some more substantial journal information.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/is-your-brain-culture/200903/your-brain-movies
http://www.amazon.com/Positive-Psychology-Movies-Character-Strengths/dp/0889373523

[danshewan]

I want to learn more about how people watch movies, the psychology behind that. If there is something a person instinctively looks for or desire when they watch a movie.

As example, there is something about and 45 degrees angle that people find scary. So if you design a character with a 45 degree jaw, nose, eyes, ears…people find it scary. I would like to find out if there is something like that when people watch movies, trailers, teasers and so on.

Interesting idea to investigate, but these two concepts are pretty different from a research perspective. What a typical audience member desires in terms of a movie's outcome and what they find visually arresting or disturbing can be wildly different even in the context of a single individual.

To generalize quite broadly, a typical movie-going person desires to experience something outside the realm of their everyday; whether that be 'good' or 'bad' depends on the film and the person watching it, but themes of escapism or voyeurism are common in many successful cinematic experiences. In terms of what a person may instinctively recognize or identify with again depends on the viewer, though often responses to certain situations that feature typically more extreme reactions than those the audience either identify with or could imagine themselves performing tend to be more popular, due to their escapist nature.

As for unsettling or 'scary' imagery, perspective is a powerful tool for a filmmaker to utilize due to the fact that so much of our lives takes place within a rigid sense of perspective - it's this subtle alteration of camera or point-of-view that makes many art works so interesting from a composition viewpoint, in addition to creating or adding to an already-established sense of drama or tension - coupled with music, this can create incredibly tense, anxious or frightening scenes from the most mundane of situations, when combined correctly. Suspension of disbelief and the successful creation of a consistent narrative contribute strongly to this effect.

As much as this topic fascinates me (obviously!), you're talking about several broad topics within the greater subject area of the psychology of film as an artistic medium, and to an extent the study of cinematography itself.

[vcassel]

Here's the book - Understanding Cinema: A Psychological Theory of Moving Imagery

"Understanding Cinema analyzes the moving imagery of film and television from a psychological perspective. Per Persson argues that spectators interpret, feel, make use of knowledge, assumptions, expectations and prejudices when viewing and making sense of film. Drawing on psychology and anthropology, he explains how close-ups, editing conventions, character psychology and other cinematic techniques work, and how and why they affect the spectator. Anchoring the discussion in concrete examples from early and contemporary cinema. Understanding Cinema also analyzes the design of cinema conventions and their stylistic transformations through the evolution of film."

[Jeroen]

That’s fascinating what I read here and the book recommendations. I’m getting interested more and more into this subject, but it also made me realise that perhaps I should narrow my search question a bit.

Thank you all very much.

[Bathtub]

Go watch
Peeping Tom (1960) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054167/)

It's all about voyeurism

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